A stockholder's consultative seminar on 'Finalising the Communication Strategy for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat' was held at a local hotel on Wednesday. Director Information FATA, Syed Fayaz Ali Shah welcomed the participants at the consultative session and hoped that this activity would go long way in bridging the gap between all the stakeholders in FATA including tribal folk, media and the FATA authorities.
Senior Lecturer of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department and Station Manager Campus Radio Ali Imran shared the proposed communication strategy of the Fata Secretariat with the participants and gave a detailed presentation on the subject. The consultative session was organized with an active assistance of the USAID funded Fata Institutional Strengthening Project (FISP). The objective of the session was to seek feedback and input of the senior journalists as well as other stakeholders on the proposed communication strategy.
A large number of media persons both from print and electronic media shared their views and put forth valuable inputs and suggestions to further improve the communication strategy. The Fata communication strategy mainly focuses on social media, electronic media, print media and effective dissemination of information about developmental activities of Governor KP and the Fata Secretariat and other stakeholders through media.
Majority of the senior journalists were of the opinion that Fata Secretariat must ensure access to information to the media persons to avoid confusion and misperception, it was suggested that PAs, APAs and officials of the Fata Secretariat must be asked to share information on emergency situations with the media persons. Another suggestion was to appoint agency based information officers sharing information on regular basis.
It was observed by number of participants that establishment of radios, having long range, through all over the Fata was need of the hour to counter the propaganda from outside broadcasters.
A senior journalist called for the earlier repatriation and rehabilitation of the IDPs to their homeland ensuring the conducive and secure environment, he also suggested the establishment of data base for the journalists working in the tribal areas. Manager Social Media, Directorate of Information Fata, Muhammad Hammad Khan suggested to open a centralise facebook and twitter account that can promote and share news and other activities of the Fata Secretariat from focal persons and social media pages of all the line departments.
Fazalullah, Communication Analyst of the Fata Secretariat declared that Directorate of Information Fata is acting as a bridge between the Fata Secretariat and the media and would continue holding such like activities to establish best relations with the media personals in order to promote the soft image of the Fata.
Participants suggested that awareness should be created among the students of schools in the tribal region about polio eradication campaign and hazards of the deadly epidemic. A woman participant came out with the suggestion of creating awareness among the tribal people specially the women folk about the use of social media asking the Fata authorities to ensure the availability of internet all over the Fata.